Few have fallen as far as ‘Big’ and ‘Little’ Edith Bouvier Beale, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy. HBO’s new drama ‘Grey Gardens’ chronicles the lives of these extraordinary women and their mysterious descent into “madness” over the course of their lives. Starring Drew Barrymore as ‘Little’ Edie and Jessica Lange as ‘Big’ Edie in the roles of a lifetime, ‘Grey Gardens’ is a revealing character study about the  love and the eccentricity of these irreverent women.

  Living the high life and rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie are among the elite society of 1936 New York. That is, until Edith is abandoned by her lover. After that, her life spirals into disarray and her stately summer home, Grey Gardens, begins falling down around her. Meanwhile, as Edie is in New York attempting to begin her career in theatre, a number of obstacles and her mother’s craving for her return eventually drive her to come back to Grey Gardens. As her female pattern baldness goes back into remission due to the stress put unto her by her mother, Edie eventually begins to go mad, as well. With their lives falling down around their ears, Edie and her mother eventually learn the true value of their relationship, and live cut off from the world in complete codependency.

  The HBO film builds off of the original documentary of the same name that followed the lives of Edith and Edie, and became an “artistic smash”. The movie alternates between scenes of Edith and Edie in their younger years living among the posh society of New Work and with re-enactments of scenes from the 1975 documentary. By splicing these scenes together, we get a sense and understanding of what caused their mutual fall from grace. 

  Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange were obviously born for their roles as Edith and Edie Beale. Comparing the real documentary to the dramatic HBO special, you see that Barrymore and Lange studied tirelessly to get all of Edith and Edie’s quirks and mannerisms down to a science. It also doesn’t hurt that if you were to put Little Edie, Big Edie, Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange in a police line-up with Barrymore and Lange in full make-up, it would be quite difficult to decide which were the real Edith and Edie Beale. The actresses completely embody their characters and perfectly convey the emotion and irreverence of these amazing women. 

  Another wonderful actress who can’t be overlooked is Jeanne Tripplehorn (from Big Love) as Jacqueline Kennedy in a brief, albeit memorable role.

  The fascinating thing about Edith and Edie Beale is that although their mutual codependency eventually gave way to a long and escalating descent into “madness”, these two women were sharp as a tack and never lost their intelligence on the way down. Edith and Edie became famous due to a series of articles published in statewide newspapers about the state of their household which violated every health code and was inhabited by raccoons and diseased cats. The articles, which talked about the impending eviction from their household, caused the public to believe that Edith and Edie were legitimately crazy. In fact, the Beales may have been “crazy”, or they might have just not cared about home improvement.

  HBO has an impressive track record for producing high quality programming and ‘Grey Gardens’ is just another amazing addition to their line-up. With amazing acting, presentation and overall production value, HBO’s ‘Grey Gardens’ is of the same caliber as many theatrical biopics. If you subscribe to HBO, I highly recommend that you give this outstanding film a look. You won’t be disappointed.